You Like This

Most people feel the need to be “liked”. You don’t make waves at office meetings, you don’t pick fights on online forums and you try to be friendly to everyone. Corporations and small businesses try to be the same way, for the most part, and social media has helped.

Most business owners like to place value on how many “likes” their pages have on Facebook. This is the ever elusive “ROI on social” – how can I pay someone to run social media for my company without determining the return on investment? Others see the value of just being on social platforms and realize that interaction with their customers or potential customers will, at some point down the road, benefit them through sales.

A recent market research survey from Lab42 is a must read for all companies and small business owners. Lab42 surveyed 1000 social media users (I think they should have surveyed more, but this will still work). They found that 50% of the survey-takers prefer a company’s brand page on Facebook over the company’s website. Think about that for a second and think about the amount of money some companies have spent on their websites as a marketing tool but don’t do anything on Facebook because they can’t quantify the value of a “like”.

Of course, the biggest motivator to “liking” a brand page – promotion/giveaways. The #1 way of interacting with fans– printed coupons. 46% liked a page but had NOINTENTION of buying from that company. I think it’s important to highlight “no intention” because that doesn’t mean they never bought…they just never intended to do that.

As a brand manager, wouldn’t the possibility of a sale motivate you to spend time cultivating a lead when you have their attention?